`Miami Vice` Turf Is Battlefield In Company`s Suit Over T-shirts

``Miami Mice`` T-shirt makers are creeping into Miami Vice territory, a California company contends in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale.

Mark and Patricia Casey of Boca Raton, who last month won the first round of a federal court battle over their ``Miami Mice`` T-shirts, now have been accused of producing unauthorized T-shirts bearing the title of the hit television show, Miami Vice.

The Caseys also have been involved in a suit in Broward Circuit Court over some ``Miami Mice`` shirts they contended two printers failed to deliver to them.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Jose A. Gonzalez issued a temporary order barring the Caseys from selling the Miami Vice shirts until the suit by Universal City Studios of California is resolved.

The studio, which has rights to products stemming from the show, recently hired a private investigator to tail T-shirts taken from the Caseys` Delray Beach business and find out if they bore the show`s name, according to court records.

``Casey and Casey were making counterfeit Miami Vice T-shirts,`` said Michael Gardiner, an aide to Universal`s New York laywer, Evan Gordon.

The stakes are high, according to Jackson. The licensed company, Billboard Promotions of Los Angeles, has sold about $12 million worth of T-shirts and related merchandise since April, the attorney said.

But the Caseys, who run Casey and Casey Inc., contend nobody can have the exclusive right to use such a commonplace expression.

``Miami Vice is . . . the name of an institution or a common descriptive term describing the city of Miami vice and narcotics squad,`` said their attorney, Elliot Michael Zimmerman of Fort Lauderdale.

Because the term is just a commonly used name for a government agency, nobody can use it exclusively, the Caseys contend in court documents.

The lawsuit before Gonzalez, filed last week but unsealed Thursday, had its beginning in a separate court action by Universal over the Casey`s T- shirts with the words ``Miami Mice.``

Those shirts show mice dressed in flashy clothes similar to those worn by the TV series` stars.

On Nov. 7, U.S. District Judge Sidney Aronovitz denied Universal`s request for a court order barring the sale of those shirts. The company contended the ``Miami Mice`` shirts might be confused with products connected with the TV show.

Although Universal lost that request, now on appeal, publicity over the suit brought a separate benefit -- an anonymous report that the Caseys also were selling shirts reading ``Miami Vice,`` court records show.

Private detective John Nathanson was hired to track merchandise leaving the Casey`s business, until recently at 2825 Congress Ave., Delray Beach, according to documents.

He reported following a boxful of unlicensed Miami Vice T-shirts to a shop in Coconut Grove, where he bought a shirt or two. The pertinent part of the shirt has been cut out and is part of the court file.

The Caseys ``are in a position to manufacture and sell massive quantities on a daily basis,`` Universal contended in court documents.

But a court-authorized seizure of shirts at Casey and Casey`s Delray Beach address netted only a single Miami Vice shirt, Universal`s attorneys said.

The seizure last week took place after the Caseys had started moving their merchandise out of the Delray Beach location, lawyers Jackson and Bill Gallwey said.